UF Trustees approve largest raises in 2 decades for faculty and staff

Image via Fresh Take Florida.

University of Florida (UF) faculty and staff are about to get a bump in pay after the school’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the most substantial raises employees have seen in two decades.

Under the merit raise approval, faculty will get a 4% increase in pay, while staff workers at the university will get a 3.75% pay hike.

“I asked the university to find savings of $25 million that we would then invest in our faculty,” board Chair Mori Hosseini said.

“As a result of our $25 million in overhead savings, our state’s generous investment in the University of Florida, and our continued focus on making sure our faculty and staff are taken care of, we approved historic merit raise pools for our faculty and staff. This is the largest raise pool in at least the past 20 years.”

UF leadership noted the substantial raises are an important retention tool for current employees at the school.

“It makes a huge difference when our faculty and staff know that we care about their hard work and what they do each day for our university,” said Interim President Kent Fuchs. “As we look forward to the Fall semester, there is a sense of excitement about our work to make sure that we elevate this great university.”

Faculty who rated as “exceed expectations” will get an additional financial incentive. They’ll be awarded a one-time bonus of $10,000 if they had the rating as part of their post-tenure evaluations.

“We always want to recognize those that go over and above,” Hosseini said. “We approved a $10,000 bonus for each of our faculty members who achieved ‘exceeds expectations’ in their post-tenure review. We are very proud of our faculty and thrilled to be able to provide these bonuses. We truly prioritize our people.”

The raises will be effective Oct. 1. There will still be collective bargaining processes with faculty members who are part of educational and professor unions.